SPONSORED COMMENT: Taking care of data

Star Trek’s character, Spock, would probably be entirely in favour of care.data and mystified at the objections from patients and healthcare professionals! However, unlike Spock, humans are not always logical but they are emotional: hence, while many of us are happy to upload vast quantities of information about ourselves to social media sites, we are horrified at the thought of the NHS gathering data on us and making it available for research and to improve the co-ordination of patient care.

Why is this? There are two issues here. Firstly, it’s about choice. It’s ironic that Tim Kelsey, the very person who introduced NHS Choices, is now seemingly limiting our choices about how sensitive information is managed. Secondly, it’s about trust – central government-run IT projects do not have a good track record in the UK or elsewhere. The answer is to give people ownership and control over care.data rather than impose an Orwellian mandate on the NHS.